


Gone Far Away Into the Silent Land

by helplesslynerdy



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-12
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-19 07:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helplesslynerdy/pseuds/helplesslynerdy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor goes to say one final goodbye to an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone Far Away Into the Silent Land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



The TARDIS landed with a soft thump in an unusually smooth landing. The Doctor walked slowly towards the doors, pulling his overcoat over his back like a shield. He exited the TARDIS and turned to take in the sight before him, hands in the pockets of his trousers.

He hated coming here.

The sky was dark with no moon or stars shedding their dim light. The Doctor’s eyes followed the gentle line of the black hills in the distance. There was no breeze, not even the errant chirp of a cricket. All was silent. Empty of life.

As the Doctor stepped forward he was suddenly bathed in a blue glow as lights started to  
flicker from the ground and spread towards the sky. Holographic trees began to appear around him by the thousands.

Memora Vivere. A name from a long dead language for a long dead planet. Memora Vivere had once teemed with life, but a war wiped out all the planet’s life in one fell swoop. After the radiation had depleted, the neighboring planets had agreed to set it up as a memorial to the fallen. Artificial grass was installed so the landscapes now looked like the universe’s largest unchanging meadow.

The Forest of Cheem, which populated one of the neighboring planets, decided to create an undying forest to remember the dead. Now all of “the great and the good” could have a holographic tree, representing a species from their planet, forever standing to provide remembrance.

The Doctor walked through the trees, respecting the quiet that was asked of all visitors. He wouldn’t have been able to break it, anyway. The planet had the same aura as the most ancient cathedral- time slowed to a stop. The memories of the thousands that had lived, loved, and lost weighed the air until a visitor was almost afraid to breathe and break the spell.

He walked up a hill until he came to a mausoleum that privately housed more trees. The richest, or the best connected, could afford a remembrance here. There were, however, exceptions made in special cases. It was for such a person he was here today- a new installment had just been finished.

The ornately carved door opened as the Doctor approached. The soft tapping of his trainers against the marble floor was the only sound as he walked through the glass-lined halls that displayed dozens of shining, semi-transparent trees. He turned a corner and came to a stop.

There, in the midst of oaks, elms, and a few exotic species stood a tiny cherry tree. Its limbs wove in a delicate tangle, adorned with the smallest blossoms and buds. The Doctor followed the branches with his eyes as they glided down to the base of the trunk where a placard lay.  
He swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat as he forced himself to read the words etched in bronze.

"Sarah Jane Smith

1 February 1946- 19 April 2011

_'Some things are worth getting your heart broken for.'"_

Sweet Sarah, brave Sarah. 

The Doctor had helped save one of the curators of Memora Vivere from a nasty attack of Vespiforms, and in gratitude the curator had offered him a spot to memorialize a loved one.

When Sarah passed, he knew he wanted it to be her. Her name on a distant planet, far in her future.

The choice of tree had not been difficult. Cherry trees had gossamer-like, beautiful exteriors, but underneath they were one of the strongest hardwoods. Never yielding, stalwart enough to withstand hurricanes. Just like his Sarah Jane.

He had also known immediately what epitaph to inscribe. She never knew that he had heard her that day, so long ago, but he had-and it had cut him to the quick. His inadvertently mirrored words to Jackson only reminded him, wounding him further, that his own heartbreak was almost always reciprocated in those he loved.

Sarah would always be worth the heartbreak.

The Doctor slowly raised a hand to rest on the glass. Sarah’s tree would always have a place here- never withering, never dying. His hand trailed down the glass as he stepped back to leave.

“Goodbye, my Sarah Jane.”

**Author's Note:**

> _The title is a quote from “Remember” by Christina Rossetti._
> 
> _Quotes and references are from “The End of the World,” “School Reunion,” and “The Next Doctor.”_
> 
> _The exhibit 'The Erudition' is by kelly richardson._
> 
> _Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I probably ever, own_ Doctor Who _or its brilliant characters._


End file.
